Publications

Abstract Background : Health state utility (HSU) is a core component of QALYs and cost-effectiveness analysis, although HSU is rarely estimated among a representative sample of patients. We explored the feasibility of assessing HSU in head and neck cancer from the French National Hospital Discharge database. Methods: An exhaustive sample of 53,258 incident adult patients with a first diagnosis of head and neck cancer was identified in 2010–2012. We used a cross-sectional approach to define five health states over two periods: three "cancer stages at initial treatment" (early, locally advanced or metastatic stage); a "relapse state" and otherwise a "relapse-free state" in the follow-up of patients initially treated at early or locally advanced stage. In patients admitted in post-acute care, a two-parameter graded response model (Item Response Theory) was estimated from all 144,012 records of six Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and the latent health state scale underlying ADLs was calibrated with the French EQ-5D-3 L social value set. Following linear interpolation between all assessments of the patient, daily estimates of utility in post-acute care were averaged by health state, patient and month of follow-up. Finally, HSU was estimated by health state and month of follow-up for the whole patient population after controlling for survivorship and selection in post-acute care. Results: Head and neck cancer was generally associated with poor HSU estimates in a real-life setting. As compared to “distant metastasis at initial treatment”, mean HSU was higher in other health states, although numerical differences were small (0.45 versus around 0.54). It was primarily explained by the negative effects on HSU of an older age (38.4% aged ≥70 years in “early stage at initial treatment”) and comorbidities (> 50% in other health states). HSU estimates significantly improved over time in the “relapse-free state” (from 8 to 12 months of follow-up). Conclusions: HSU estimates in head and neck cancer were primarily driven by age at diagnosis, comorbidities, and time to assessment of cancer survivors. This feasibility study highlights the potential of estimating HSU within and across severe conditions in a systematic way at the national level.
Keywords Head and neck cancer, Health state utility, EQ-5D-3L, QALYs, Cost-effectiveness analysis, Activities of daily living, Item response theory, National Hospital discharge database
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract This paper provides a new mechanism to explain variation in firm productivity across locations: variation in the internal organization of labor into hierarchical layers, which are associated with different responsibilities within the firm. To guide my analysis, I develop a theoretical model that yields two implications. First, firms in larger markets organize into a greater number of layers. Second, because they have more layers, firms in larger markets are more productive. I then use administrative data to examine the model’s implications across French employment areas and non-tradeable service industries that satisfy the model’s assumptions: Clothing and Shoe Retail, Traditional Restaurants, and Hair and Beauty Salons. The findings are consistent with the model. I also observe that 8.8% to 22.4% of the log productivity gains from denser areas arise from differences in the organization of firms. A separate analysis shows that results are similar across firms operating in the manufacturing sector.
Keywords Firm organization, Heterogeneous firms, Market size, Density, Regional disparities, Wages, Firm productivity
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract This chapter considers potential games, where agents play, each period, Nash worthwhile moves in alternation, such that their unilateral motivation to change rather than to stay, other players being supposed to stay, are high enough with respect to their resistance to change rather than to stay. This defines a generalized proximal alternating linearized algorithm, where resistance to change plays a major role, perturbation terms of alternating proximal algorithms being seen as the disutilities of net costs of moving.
HAL Google Scholar
Abstract After‐tax income inequality has risen since the mid‐1990s, as increases in market income inequality have not been offset by greater fiscal redistribution. We argue that the substantial increase in the diversity of consumer goods has mitigated mounting political pressures for redistribution. Within a probabilistic voting framework, we demonstrate that if the share of diversified goods in the consumption bundle increases sufficiently with income, then an increase in goods diversity can reduce the political equilibrium tax rate. Focusing on OECD countries, we find empirical support for both the model's micro‐political foundations and the implied relation between goods diversity and fiscal policy outcomes.
Keywords Redistribution, Panel data, Non-homothetic preferences, Variety, Probabilistic voting
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract Asymptotic and bootstrap tests for inequality measures are known to perform poorly in finite samples when the underlying distribution is heavy-tailed. We propose Monte Carlo permutation and bootstrap methods for the problem of testing the equality of inequality measures between two samples. Results cover the Generalized Entropy class, which includes Theil’s index, the Atkinson class of indices, and the Gini index. We analyze finite-sample and asymptotic conditions for the validity of the proposed methods, and we introduce a convenient rescaling to improve finite-sample performance. Simulation results show that size correct inference can be obtained with our proposed methods despite heavy tails if the underlying distributions are sufficiently close in the upper tails. Substantial reduction in size distortion is achieved more generally. Studentized rescaled Monte Carlo permutation tests outperform the competing methods we consider in terms of power.
Keywords Permutation test, Inequality measures, Income distribution, Bootstrap
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract The paper investigates how endogenous markups affect the extent to which policy reforms can influence international competitiveness. In a two-country model where trade costs allow for international market segmentation, we show that endogenous pricing-to-market behavior of firms acts as an important transmission channel of the policies. By strengthening the degree of competition between firms, product market deregulation at home leads to a reduction in domestic markups, which generally leads to an improvement in the international competitiveness of the Home country. Conversely, the power of competitive tax policy to depreciate the real exchange rate is dampened, as domestic firms take the opportunity of the labor tax cut to increase their markups. The variability of markups also affects the normative implications of the reforms. This indicates the importance of taking into account endogenous pricing-to-market behavior when intending to correctly evaluate the overall effects of the reforms.
Keywords Endogenous Markups, Fiscal reform, Endogenous firm entry, Product market deregulation, Pricing-to-market, Exchange rate, Pricing-to-market, Endogenous Markups, Endogenous firm entry, Product market deregulation, Exchange rate, Fiscal reform
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract We analyze regional inequalities in access to maternal and neonatal health services in Iraq and Syria during the period 2000–2011, before the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS. Utilizing nationally representative survey data (Iraq 2000, 2006, 2011; Syria 2006, 2009), we examine changes in the rate of babies weighed at birth and women delivering at home. We calculate 4 regional inequality indicators: (1) extremal quotient, (2) interquartile quotient, (3) coefficient of variation, and (4) systematic component of variation. Despite national improvements in both countries over time, indicators show increasing regional inequalities in access to maternal and neonatal health services, particularly in Syria between 2006 and 2009. Spatial regression results indicate that these inequalities associate with inequalities in maternal education, rurality, and wealth. Regions where women experienced deteriorating access over time, reflecting overall inequalities, are those that fell under the control of ISIS. Inequalities in access to basic services (education and health) deserve more attention in understanding social and political change in the Arab region.
Keywords Syria, Iraq, Access to health services, Regional inequalities
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract We consider tests of the hypothesis that the tail of size distributions decays faster than any power function. These are based on a single parameter that emerges from the Fisher–Tippett limit theorem, and discriminate between leading laws considered in the literature without requiring fully parametric models/specifications. We study the proposed tests taking into account the higher order regular variation of the size distribution that can lead to catastrophic distortions. The theoretical bias corrections realign successfully nominal and empirical test behavior, and inform a sensitivity analysis for practical work. The methods are used in an examination of the size distribution of cities and firms.
Keywords Tail behavior, Size distribution, Extreme value index, Power law, Regular variation
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract This study assesses the impact of a tax incentive scheme to boost private rental investment in force in France from 2009 to 2012, called the “Scellier scheme” (after the name of the minister who promoted it), on changes in the price of building land. A difference in differences estimation is implemented, drawing on data from the BNDP database covering the period 2004 2010. The definition of the control and treatment groups is based on the boundary between municipalities which are eligible for the Scellier scheme and municipalities which are not. The estimation results suggest that the scheme had an inflationary effect and point to land price capitalisation, with an increase in the price per square metre of around 7 euros in the first year and of 8 to 9 euros over 2009 and 2010, without a significant rise of the phenome¬non in the second year, i.e. an increase of 8% in the first year and of 9 to 10% after two years. The regions where the market was the tightest saw the most rapid price increase, particularly the Mediterranean region.
Keywords Scellier scheme, Private rental investment, Income tax deduction, Land price
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract This paper concerns applications of variational analysis to some local aspects of behavioral science modeling by developing an effective variational rationality approach to these and related issues. Our main attention is paid to local stationary traps, which reflect such local equilibrium and the like positions in behavioral science models that are not worthwhile to quit. We establish constructive linear optimistic evaluations of local stationary traps by using generalized differential tools of variational analysis that involve subgradients and normals for nonsmooth and nonconvex objects as well as variational and extremal principles.
Keywords Variational rationality, Applications to behavioral sciences, Variational and extremal principles, Normals, Sub-gradients, Worthwhile moves, Optimization, Variational analysis
HAL Google Scholar
Abstract Décédé le 25 août 2015, Yûichi Shionoya avait acquis une stature internationale en développant en particulier le champ de la philosophie économique. Nous consacrons une partie documentaire à cet économiste soucieux de la réflexivité au sein de sa discipline dans le présent numéro spécial « Philosophie économique au Japon ». Cet hommage est l’occasion de présenter au public de la Revue de philosophie économique/ Review of Economic Philosophy deux de ses textes inédits en toute autre langue que le japonais. Afin de mieux les situer, nous proposons cette courte présentation en français accompagnée d’une nécrologie en anglais. Nous remercions le professeur émérite Bertram Schefold, qui avait présidé une « table-ronde » d’hommage à Shionoya tenue en 2016 ; son texte constitue également un précieux témoignage de l’interaction entre chercheurs européens et japonais dans notre discipline et de l’influence forte exercée, en l’occurrence dans le cas de Shionoya, par la pensée de langue allemande. Les textes de Shionoya présentés en traduction française dans le présent numéro thématique sont tirés de son ouvrage Économie et éthique : philosophie de l’État-providence. Le premier texte constitue l’introduction du volume original, le second son appendice de nature historique et philosophique à la fois. Dans ce texte qui sert à la fois de conclusion au volume, la dernière phrase exprime tout l’esprit de la quête de Shionoya, dans ses propres termes : « dans ce livre, nous avons tenté de remplir consciencieusement et méthodiquement notre devoir consistant à rapporter la dimension des idées à celle des systèmes »…
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract Why do people pay taxes? Rational choice theory has fallen short in answering this question. Another explanation, called “tax morale”, has been promoted. Tax morale captures the behavioral idea that non-monetary preferences (like norm-submission, moral emotions and moral judgments) might be better determinants of tax compliance than monetary trade-offs. Herein we report on two lab experiments designed to assess whether norm-submission, moral emotions (e.g. affective empathy, cognitive empathy, propensity to feel guilt and shame) or moral judgments (e.g. ethics principles, integrity, and moralization of everyday life) can help explain compliance behavior. Although we find statistically significant correlations of tax compliance behavior with empathy and shame, the economic significance of these correlations are low–—more than 80% of the variability in compliance remains unexplained. These results suggest that tax authorities should focus on the institutional context, rather than individual preference characteristics, to handle tax evasion.
Keywords Tax evasion, Tax morale, Morality, Personality traits, Psychometrics
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract Bilateral bargaining between a multiple-worker firm and individual employees leads to overhiring. With a concave production function, the firm can reduce the marginal product by hiring an additional worker, thereby reducing the bargaining wage paid to all existing employees. We show that this externality is amplified when firms can adjust hours per worker as well as employment. Firms keep down workers’ wage demands by reducing the number of hours per worker and the resulting labor disutility. Our finding is particularly relevant for European economies where hours adjustment plays an important role.
Keywords Intrafirm bargaining, Hours, Employment, Overhiring
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract In 2013, Québec implemented a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading system (QC ETS), despite opposition from industry, which feared loss of competitiveness and warned about job destruction. This article assesses the impact of that carbon regulation on industrial facilities in Québec. Conditional difference-in-differences ordinary least squares regressions show that regulated plants reduced their GHG emissions by about 9.8%, employment by about 6.8% and carbon intensity by about 3.7% more compared to non-regulated plants in the rest of Canada during the period 2013–2015. This suggests that facilities adapted to the new program by improving their technology, but first and foremost by scaling down their activity, which raises questions about the ability of the QC ETS to induce enough environmental investment and innovation in industrial facilities. The results, in terms of employment effects, contrast with the findings of similar studies on the early stages of the European ETS and the British Columbia carbon tax scheme, and this information challenges the initial allocation scheme for permits, in particular, with a view to a green fiscal reform.
Keywords Climate policy, Employment, Carbon market, Environmental Regulation
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract How does neighbors' income affect individual well‐being? Our analysis is based on rich U.S. local data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which contains information on where respondents live and their self‐reported well‐being. We find that the effect of neighbors' income on individuals' self‐reported well‐being varies with the size of the neighborhood included. In smaller areas such as ZIP codes, we find a positive relationship between median income and individuals' life satisfaction, whereas it is the opposite at the county, MSA, and state levels. We provide evidence that local public goods and local area characteristics such as unemployment, criminality, and poverty rates drive the association between satisfaction and neighbors' income at the ZIP code level. The neighbors' income effects are mainly concentrated among poorer individuals and are as large as one quarter of the effect of own income on self‐reported well‐being.
Publication HAL Google Scholar
Abstract This paper provides evidence that the external debt-to-fiscal revenue ratio in emerging countries follows a power-law distribution. Such a distribution reflects the fact that external debt distress or debt crises correspond to extreme events that have been found to happen fairly often. We formally test the hypothesis of a power-law, going further than the usual visual inspection of the distribution of the variable of interest on a doubly logarithmic scale. We also show that such a distribution can be derived from a theoretical model in which uncertainty comes from tax evasion and corruption. Using the framework of an optimal stochastic growth model, we model the external debt-to-fiscal revenue ratio as a diffusion process for which the stochastic steady state distribution is derived using the properties of Itô diffusion processes.
Keywords Power-law Stochastic growth External debt Emerging countries
Publication HAL Google Scholar